Dear friends, family, and those I yet have the pleasure to meet ~

I am honored and humbled you are here today.  With so many events, people, videos, texts, carpools, meal preps, exercises, and catnaps vying for your time, it brings me great joy that you paused here at my blog…if only for a moment.  After all this time, All Mimsy Home is still one of my favorite places to be, and I hope to be spending increasingly more time here over the next several weeks.  Why?  Because fun things are in store, that’s why!  But allow me to explain.

Over the last few years, my blogging journey has careened from children’s bedroom design to paint colors, from DIY chicken coops to antiqued furniture, from parenting issues to hot pink bathrooms.  At every turn, these words and photos have reflected the beat of my heart and served as a gracious conduit for my passion in all things Home.  Although I have often taken long breaks from blogging, I never stopped blogging in my heart.  I always knew it was only a matter of time before I returned.

This last year, however, I took a giant leap back from personal blogging and home design to re-enter the working world as a high school English teacher.  From August 2016 until the middle of May, I launched into a chaotic world of re-certification paperwork, lesson planning for well-known classics like Julius Caesar, The Odyssey, Romeo & Juliet, Lord of the Flies, and Oedipus Rex, long hours grading ten-page-long research papers and argumentative essays on cell phone usage in class (students are FOR it in case you held any doubt), and delighting in fantastical short stories written by extremely imaginative freshmen.

These last 10 months wrung me out, challenged my stamina, pressed my wits, and forced me to come face-to-face with my inner self in ways I never have before.  Quite simply, it was a life-changing year.

Without launching into great detail, one of the most powerful lessons I learned this year is that I am STRONGER than I’ve ever allowed myself to be.  So many days I remember thinking: “I can’t do this anymore!” (This being the struggle to meet the  needs and expectations of students, coworkers, immediate family, extended family, laundry/meal planning/cleaning, etc.) The powerful truth I discovered about myself is this: Each and every morning I would get up early, sip my coffee in a daze until I was alert enough to partake of my daily bread (both physically and spiritually), and then head out the door and… DO IT ANYWAY.  I would just DO it. Even when everything in me felt like I could not DO IT another day.

I DID it.  Anyway.

I just kept placing one foot in front of the other.  Just kept mommying.  Just kept teaching the very best lessons I could produce.  Just kept wife-ing.  Just kept friending. Just cooked and shopped when I could, and cleaned when I absolutely had to.  Just kept praying.  Just kept, kept, kept.

Doing it. Finding the strength EVEN WHEN I didn’t believe I had any strength left.

Ironically, in the midst of all this “doing it,” my sister challenged me to sign up for a Spartan race to celebrate her May 7th birthday.  A Spartan race is a well-known, world-wide race with obstacles throughout its 5-8 mile run like Rope climbing,  8′ Vertical walls,  Mud pits,  Monkey bars,  Barbed wire,  Log carries,  Spear throwing.  You get the idea.

A Spartan race is a run with obstacles which requires you to KEEP GOING even when you don’t think you can.  Even when you think you don’t have any strength left.

On May 7th, a committed group of us completed our first Spartan race together in Kalispell, Montana.  I not only finished the race, I managed to place in the top 10 of my age group: 4th out of 130 women aged 45-49! Can I take a moment and tell you how it felt to run the race,to  finish, and then to learn I had done well?  Some might even argue better than well?  It felt fabulous.  It felt fabulous to train Jan-April for the race even when I didn’t think I had the time or the energy.  it felt fabulous to run through the wild trails of Montana and stride downhill past runner after runner as I leaped over branches and mud pits and dodged trees.  It felt fabulous to say afterward: I NOT ONLY FINISHED, I FINISHED STRONG.

Now that the school year and Spartan race are both behind me and I’ve had moments to ponder and reflect and analyze, I realize that deep inside, I have always been stronger and more able and more capable than I ever believed.  Not just in the little things, but in the big things, too.  I simply didn’t believe it to be true.  Especially in regard to my passions, there have always been voices questioning my inner motives, telling me my small effort was “good enough,” convincing me that others had “already done” what I dreamed of doing, and the gifts I had to offer wouldn’t be “as good as” the gifts already out there.

Maybe you’ve heard those voices, too?

But this year, something in me shifted, and I can still feel the daily effects of its adjustment.  Before, I didn’t immediately recognize those negative voices as poison, but lately I am able to quickly identify them as such and, just as quickly, overpower them with Scripture and truth.  Overpower them with affirmations.  Overpower them with encouragement.

And it’s slowly changing me from the inside out.

So what does all this have to do with All Mimsy Home?  Well, here it is:  With new strength, a new resolve, and fresh perspective, I am jumping in with both feet this summer and launching my first ever in-home Vintage Market!  This event will take place Saturday, July 1st, from 10:00am – 3:00pm and will be chock full of refinished furniture, homemade pillows, rustic decor ladders, vintage cutting boards, hand-painted signs, and other farmhouse-style goodies.  I am so excited to share my little pieces of farmhouse/vintage/chippy goodness with others who love the same kinds of things!

An in-home market is certainly not a new idea for me, but the vision and mission have become more clarified as I’ve spent time brainstorming my passions, my desires, and my own heart:

 

I’ve realized that behind my passion for all things Home is an earnest desire to empower each and every woman to create a beautiful home that reflects her own style, her own heart, and her own story. 

 

Because isn’t that, really, what HOME  is all about?

I am also excited to offer in-home styling consultations beginning July 1st for those who long to tweak and brainstorm room arrangements, wall decor, cohesiveness in a room, accessory placements, etc.  If you’re struggling to decorate your home, I would love to share the things I’ve learned and utilize in my own home to help you make your space feel more inviting, pulled together, functional and beautiful.

It has been a life-changing, strength-building, God-breathed year for me.   THANK YOU for coming alongside and reading my blog journey and announcement today.  I anticipate a fun road ahead with All Mimsy Home…and truth be told, I’m rather looking forward to a few obstacles.

Strong in Him,

Jaimee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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